Nakajima Kikka

Uncommon card · No. 174459

The Nakajima Kikka (橘花; "tachibana flower"), initially designated Kōkoku Nigō Heiki (皇国二号兵器; "Imperial Weapon No. 2"), was Japan's first turbojet-powered aircraft. It was developed late in World War II, and the single completed prototype flew only once, in August 1945, before the end of the conflict. The early development of the Kikka was influenced by, but was not a direct copy of, the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft. A Japanese military attaché had reported back from Nazi Germany after witnessing trials of the Me 262 in 1942, and a subsequent technical mission to Germany set about transferring the technologies and associated engineering information for the BMW 003 axial-flow turbojet engine and other jet-related material to Japan, although these efforts were not straightforward. During September 1944, the Imperial Japanese Navy requested that Nakajima design a jet-powered combat aircraft capable of speeds of at least 430 miles per hour...

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